Besides writing, cooking is my passion and I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. A few years ago we remodeled it and now I have a large kitchen that inspires me to do even more.

A couple weeks before our sixteenth year wedding anniversary this year instead of going out I created a romantic dinner for two. We drank a couple glasses of chardonnay and looked longing into each other eyes. My husband says that’s cheaper than an upgrade on a diamond ring. Ha ah!
I thought I share the rest of the dinner menu, minus the looking into each other eyes; you’re on your own with that one.
Lip Smacking Pork Roulade is a main dish in the Passionate Cooks cook book. Below are the two side dishes I served with it.New Red Potatoes with ParsleyIngredients

1 (1-pound) new red potatoes

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 bunch fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°.

Wash and cut the new potatoes into quarters and dry.

Put the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and new potatoes in a bowl and toss.

Add salt and pepper and toss again.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the potatoes in a single layer.

"I second that," Brenda clinked her glass to ours and munched on chips and salsa.

After a sip from my drink my sexy-guy radar started to beep. I did a quick scan of the restaurant and spotted my target. I discreetly waved my hand above my head and said, "Target acquired... target acquired." We laughed until we about peed our pants and then I leaned forward and quietly asked, "Do you think he heard me?" then giggled more. "I've seen my share of gorgeous men, but that guy is smok’n hot."

"Oh boy, is he ever," Kitty and Brenda said in unison and fanned their faces dramatically.

All of a sudden Kitty rolled her eyes toward the bar and whispered, "Holy moly, he's coming this way."

Sure enough he made his way through the crowd on the dance floor towards our table. Before I hyperventilated from excitement, Kitty kicked me in the shin. "Thanks, I needed that." Kitty could be pretty levelheaded in stressful situations.

Introducing Guest Blogger and Best-Selling Author Sharon Kleve!

Bestselling author Sharon Kleve is a Passionate Cook.
Food and love have had a long association, for Passionate Cooks: Free Recipes From Today’s Hottest Romance Authors, over 150 authors of the genre have put their pens and computers aside to don aprons, get down and dirty in the kitchen, and share their love of food.
Much like romance novels themselves, the dishes range from spicy to sweet. There is something for every taste and every level of culinary expertise. The cookbook includes bestselling author Sharon Kleve’s Lip Smacking Pork Roulade and New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mari Carr’s “Wild Irish” Cream of Crab Soup recipe. Western GBLT author BA Tortuga contributes a dish as spicy and colorful as the straight-shooting author herself with Ranch Hands—a blend of Tabasco, salsa, onions and cumin, added to pinto beans, eggs, Canadian bacon and cheddar cheese and served in a tortilla. And for those of you who are feeling extra creative and sexy, there’s the Avocado Dip that doubles as body paint from mystery writer Marcia James.
Some recipes are simple, such as Down Home Mac & Cheese, while some are more exotic, such as Spicy Shrimp Risotto. There are even some gluten-free selections, like the Sweet and Spicy Gluten-Free Lo Mein-ish Noodles from erotica author Sommer Marsden. And a few are perfectly timed for a Halloween, such as Tracey H. Kitt’s Gamberi del Diavolo or Shrimp of the Devil.
Best of all, they are all FREE!
You can find the link on my website: http://www.sharonkleve.com/
And my blog: http://authorsharonkleve.blogspot.com/https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-passionatecooks-944744-174.html

Blurb:
Corny is a hot chick with a great job that she loves. All that changed in the blink of an eye when her boss had an accident involving an oversized rubber band. She’s still a hot chick, but her boss is dead.
Steve Spears is a seasoned narcotics cop who ends up wanting to strangle Corny on a regular basis. After finding out Corny’s dream of opening a pet detective business, he decides he doesn’t want a girlfriend who routinely puts herself in danger. That’s his job!
Corny misses Steve, but she’s getting on with her life. She decides to get a month’s worth of dating out of the way in a single night, by combining her three favorite things—men, food, and alcohol.
Steve’s big gun and cop’s intuition saves Corny’s life, but not from another trip to the emergency room. He makes Corny promise never to get hurt again—she agreed, but has her fingers crossed behind her back.Author Bio: Sharon Kleve was born and raised in Washington and currently lives on the Olympic Peninsula with her husband.
She loves romance. She loves reading romance, living romance, and especially loves writing about romance. She gets no greater feeling than watching her characters come alive in each other’s arms. Most of all, she loves giving her characters the happily ever after they deserve—with a few bumps and bruises along the way.
One of her favorite things to do is picking up a new book and sinking into the story, immersing herself in the emotions between the characters. She hopes to inspire her readers the same way her favorite authors have inspired her.
When not writing, she can usually be found either curled up in her recliner with her cat and a good book, or in the kitchen baking sourdough bread or bagels.

Have a passion for romance and food? Passionate Cooks is a hot new cookbook featuring tempting delights from your favorite romance authors. The eBook is available exclusively from ARe/OmniLit starting October, 2012 and is absolutely free!

Included is a recipe for the Lip Smacking Pork Roulade from yours truly!

Interview with Sharon Kleve, Author of The Corny Myers Series

Sharon Kleve: Klutzy Love is a Paranormal Romance and the third book in the Corny Myers Series. It takes you back to when Corny and Steve first meet.Corny is a hot chick with a great job that she loves. All that changed in the blink of an eye when her boss had an accident involving an oversized rubber band. She’s still a hot chick, but her boss is dead.Steve Spears is a seasoned narcotics cop who ends up wanting to strangle Corny on a regular basis. After finding out Corny’s dream of opening a pet detective business, he decides he doesn’t want a girlfriend who routinely puts herself in danger. That’s his job!Corny misses Steve, but she’s getting on with her life. She decides to get a month’s worth of dating out of the way in a single night, by combining her three favorite things—men, food, and alcohol. Steve’s big gun and cop’s intuition saves Corny’s life, but not from another trip to the emergency room. He makes Corny promise never to get hurt again—she agreed, but has her fingers crossed behind her back.

Sue Lyndon: Where can readers find your newest release?

Sharon Kleve: Klutzy Love is available on Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.Sue Lyndon: If you could be the hero/heroine in any novel, who would it be and why?Sharon Kleve: I'd love to be Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum. To have two sexy, dangerous men like Joe Morelli and Ranger fighting over me would be a girls dream.My heroine in The Corny Myer Series is similar to Stephanie Plum, but with a psychic twist. She speaks to animals.Sue Lyndon: Do you like to listen to music while you write? Sharon Kleve: Yes, I absolutely have to have music on while I write. I still have a day job and even there I have a small radio that I keep on low while I work. I have very eclectic taste in music. I like to write to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Madonna, and Taylor Swift. I love pop music from the 60's, and 70's like Atlanta Rhythm Section 'So In To You' and Bobby Bloom 'Montego Bay'.Sue Lyndon: Coffee or tea?Sharon Kleve: I'm a Starbucks snob, through and through. (Double, tall, soy, latte)Sue Lyndon: What inspired you to start writing? Sharon Kleve: Well, because the little voices in my head tell me to—seriously, I’ve always talked to myself—now I put the voices on paper.I was a late bloomer and didn’t start my love of reading until I was in my twenties and then I couldn’t get enough of the wonderfully, smutty Harlequin books with really sexy hot guys on the cover.

I’ve worked in the government sector for fifteen years and always dreamed of having a job that I could work from home. This crazy idea came to me one night, after reading a particularly sizzling romance. Why not try my hand at writing one? So, out of the blue I told my husband I was going to write a Harlequin novel. He said, “Okay.”I figured I’d read enough of them, I could write one—no problem. Eight thousand words later; I realized it was harder than I thought. I also realized, I wasn’t writing what I was most comfortable with—animals.

I put my Harlequin attempt on the back burner and started writing “The Boss from Hell”. My boss, who I adored, had been fired and his replacement was a living-terror. It was really easy to come up with material to write about and of course I threw in a bunch of romance and of course animals. Ninety thousand words later I was still optimistic that I could write for a living, but I’d need a lot of support, my cat couldn’t give me. The support came in the form of Romance Writers of America and all the people involved in the local chapter.

Several of the members of my local chapter read my book and made numerous suggestions, one of them came from an independent publisher—Books to Go Now. She told me to put the novel aside for now and try my hand at a short story. That’s where I incorporated the paranormal aspect to my writing and it really clicked for me.

I submitted ‘Flamingo Blues’, as a Christmas short story to Books to Go Now and I was offered my first contract. ‘Be Mine’, a Valentine short story, is book two of ‘The Corny Meyers Series’ and in addition to a contract, I won the holiday contest too. Woo hoo! Klutzy Love is book three of ‘The Corny Myers Series’, which came out in August 2012.

Sue Lyndon: Tell us about your upcoming writing projects.Sharon Kleve: I'll have the fourth book in The Corny Myers Series, St. Patrick with a Bite, completed soon. Also, Flamingo Blues, Be Mine and St. Patrick with a Bite will be published as an anthology later this year.I'm especially excited about my recipe, "Lip Smacking Pork Roulade" was chosen to be in "Free Recipes from the Hottest Romance Authors Passionate Cooks." The cookbook will be offered for FREE on All Romance sites including AllRomance.com, OmniLit.com, and AReCafe.com beginning in October. A short biography along with my link to my website and ARe author page will be added at the bottom of my recipe page. In addition, they will feature Klutzy Love in their Wildfire newsletter during the month of October. The newsletter subscriber list is currently over 135,000.https://www.allromanceebooks.com/passionatecooks.html

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Why do I write? Well, because the little voices in my head
tell me to—seriously,
I’ve always talked to myself—now I put the voices on paper.

I was a late bloomer and didn’t start my love of reading until I was in
my twenties and then I couldn’tget enough of the wonderfully,
smutty Harlequin books.

I’ve worked in the government sector for fifteen years and
always dreamed of having a job that I could work from home. This crazy idea
came to me one night, after reading a particularly sizzling romance. Why not
try my hand at writing one? So, out of the blue I told my husband I was going
to write a Harlequin novel. He said, “Okay.”

I figured I’d read enough of them, I could write one—no
problem. Eight thousand words later; I realized it was harder than I thought. I
needed to rethink what I wanted to write about.

I put my Harlequin attempt on the back burner and started
writing a novel called “The Boss from Hell”. My boss, who I adored, had been fired
and his replacement was a living-terror. It was easy to come up with material
from his office antics. I threw in psychically communicating with animals and a
little bit of raunchy sex and it seemed to click.

Ninety thousand words later I was still optimistic that I
could write for a living, but I’d need support, my cat couldn’t give me. The support
came in the form of Romance Writers of America and all the people involved in
the local chapter.

Several of the members of my local chapter read my book and
made numerous suggestions, one of them came from an independent publisher—Books
to Go Now. She told me to put the novel aside for now and try my hand at a
short story. I took her advice and wrote a short story.

After I hit the send button to submit Flamingo Blues, as a
Christmas short story to Books to Go Now I sat at my computer and kept hitting
refresh—
every hour. Ha ha…When I got an email from Books to Go Now saying, “We’d like
to offer you a contract for Flamingo Blues.” I hyperventilated—I
couldn’t believe my eyes. I’ve never in my life felt that kind of joy—Opps, I
retract that, my husband gives me great joy. Anyway, I grabbed my co-worker and
we ran around the outside of the building and hugged over-and over again. We
did some jumping up and down too.

On a huge high, I wrote Be Mine, a Valentine short story.
And again, when I received the email with a contract attached, the excitement
was overwhelming .My co-worker and I did another happy dance and my husband
bought a bottle champagne to celebrate.

I immediately started writing ‘Klutzy Love’, the third book
in ‘The Corny Myers Series’.

Whenever I open a word document and start to type I get a
flutter in my belly, who will Corny make laugh today?

Corny Myers has a unique psychic ability;
she can communicate with animals.

In the pursuit of the perfect
Christmas getaway in Victoria BC; Corny steals a tour bus; returns a flock of
stolen flamingos to their favorite lake; buys Steve, her tough-as-nails Seattle
cop boyfriend, front row seats to the Cirque du Soleil; and she gets a bright
and shiny new key.

Corny is a hot chick with a great job
that she loves. All that changed in the blink of an eye when her boss had an
accident involving an oversized rubber band. She’s still a hot chick, but her
boss is dead.

Steve Spears is a seasoned narcotics cop
who ends up wanting to strangle Corny on a regular basis. After finding out
Corny’s dream of opening a pet detective business, he decides he doesn’t want a
girlfriend who routinely puts herself in danger. That’s his job!

Corny misses Steve, but she’s getting on
with her life. She decides to get a month’s worth of dating out of the way in a
single night, by combining her three favorite things—men, food, and alcohol.

Steve’s big gun and cop’s intuition
saves Corny’s life, but not from another trip to the emergency room. He makes
Corny promise never to get hurt again—she agreed, but has her fingers crossed
behind her back.

Happy Sunday to everyone. I'm at the Goddess Fish Party Pavilion all day today with excerpts from Heroes Live Forever and Journey in Time, my paranormal/historical romances. I'm giving away a Smashwords coupon for my romantic thriller to a randomly chosen commenter. Stop by at: http://goddessfishparty.blogspot.com/